That Man Was Here!

[The wind brought the seeds of stories, and time made them sprout]

[But even the wind had moments of weariness and weakness. Only blades and swords, blood and fire, could protect the wind of freedom]

As the video began to play, a narrator's voice slowly sounded.

As Ronova listened, she found the voice oddly familiar.

Listening more closely, she realized it was the voice of Istaroth, the Ruler of Time.

Was this for real?

Did Istaroth make this video?

Sure enough, not one of my colleagues is serious. They're either changing jobs, betraying us, or slacking off!

As Ronova grumbled to herself, she saw a flood of scrolling comments sweep across the video.

The A Hundred Lifetimes of Reincarnation video series had already surged onto the trending searches, and viewers from all Seven Nations of the mortal world had flocked in, sharing their thoughts through the comments.

[High-energy moment ahead! High-energy moment ahead!]

[Someone from Liyue here to learn!]

[Someone from Mondstadt here to pay respects to Lord Anemo Archon!]

Though Ronova found the many comments scrolling past a little distracting, they somehow created a strong atmosphere.

It was as though many people were watching the video with her.

As she reflected on that, the image in the video changed from a black screen to a vast city shrouded in fierce winds.

Anyone from Mondstadt would surely have recognized the sight.

It was Stormterror's Lair in Mondstadt.

Or rather, it was the first city of Mondstadt, created by Decarabian, the God of Storms, and known as Old Mondstadt.

Sure enough, when the image of Old Mondstadt appeared, the people of Mondstadt watching the video couldn't help jumping into the comments to discuss it.

[Is this really Old Mondstadt? A lot of the surroundings seem to match up with Stormterror's Lair today!]

[So this really is the story of Barbatos, the Anemo Archon? It wasn't filmed by some famous director from Fontaine?]

[Look at this image, these textures, these mountains and waters. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look filmed!]

[Oh my god, who on earth made this video? They even managed to get footage of the Archon War from two thousand years ago?]

[Could the Heavenly Principles have made this video...]

As the viewers discussed how realistic the footage looked, the video continued to unfold.

It showed events that had taken place in the city-state created by the God of Tornadoes.

Because of the God of Tornadoes' particular ideas, the city he designed for his people was circular overall, with everything arranged in an orderly fashion above, below, left, and right. From the very beginning, he had assigned a place to everyone who lived there.

He had built himself a magnificent palace at the very center of the city-state, where a towering spire allowed him to look down over the entire city and take in everything his people did.

He was immensely pleased with the royal city he had built. From atop the tower, he received the prostrations of all his followers, as though he meant for the city to endure for countless generations, standing forever upon the land of Teyvat.

But in the city's dark corners, the people's discontent was building bit by bit, and their despair continued to spread.

Because Decarabian had arranged everyone's place from the start, the status of nobles and commoners alike had been fixed from the beginning.

On top of that, Old Mondstadt's poor geographical conditions meant that very little grain could be harvested.

Those at the bottom lived in perpetual misery, beset by hunger and cold.

The nobles, meanwhile, relied on the status they had been born into to enjoy the prosperity of an age under the god's protection to their hearts' content.

Over a long period of time, this absolute inequality accumulated and festered, until it finally erupted.

The first to raise the banner of rebellion was a black-haired girl.

She had the typical appearance of someone from Mondstadt and was an ordinary person from the lower district.

To change the state of Old Mondstadt, she rallied the people's hopes and, with a powerful resolve, challenged the god Decarabian.

But resolve alone could change nothing.

The vast gulf between mortals and gods doomed the rebellion to failure from the start.

In the end, the girl was captured by the city-state's guards and thrown into prison to await her execution.

The guards, however, never discovered that a tiny wind spirit had remained hidden on her person.

The wind spirit was so small that no one noticed her.

Still less did the arrogant God of Tornadoes, who had never taken the little spirit seriously.

"Am I going to die here?"

The girl asked the wind spirit.

She had known the wind spirit for a long time, and the two had gradually formed a deep friendship.

Now they were both trapped in prison, able only to wait for death.

"Someone will come to save you."

So said the wind spirit.

"Will someone really come? No matter who it is, they couldn't possibly infiltrate this god's fortress and open the gates of this heavily guarded prison, could they?"

"I..."

The girl's words silenced the wind spirit.

The latter knew just how desperate their situation was and how little chance there was of their fate being redeemed.

Despair and deathly silence hung over the prison cell, as though the shadow of death had already crept upon them.

[Poor girl. She only stood up to resist the god's tyranny]

[Could this girl be the Anemo Archon? Wait, the Anemo Archon was a girl?]

[Uh, according to Mondstadt's legends, the Anemo Archon seems to have originally been a wind spirit, so the wind spirit beside this girl is actually our Anemo Archon...]

[Huh? Your god in Mondstadt is that cute?]

[Never mind who the Anemo Archon is. Their situation looks pretty bad right now. Can someone come save them?]

The darkness of the prison remained unbroken.

A long time passed, and when the day of execution finally arrived, the girl at last reached the end of her road.

The guards dragged her all the way out of the prison and brought her to an execution ground in the center of Old Mondstadt.

The people around her were all expressionless as they watched, coldly observing the end of the one who had once tried to defy the storm.

"Is this child going to die?"

Watching the scene in the video, Ronova couldn't help feeling conflicted.

She was the Ruler of Death, but that didn't mean she was indifferent to people dying.

Perhaps she had once been that cold, but over the course of her long conversations with Mo Fan, she had gradually learned much from that man.

At the very least, she now understood deeply how precious and weighty life was.

And so, as the Ruler of Death, Ronova now sincerely hoped the girl wouldn't die.

If she still possessed her authority and were present at the execution, she would certainly stop the god's brutal act.

Of course, all of that was just fantasy.

The reality was that the girl was being led step by step to the execution ground, where death would soon await her.

For a moment, Ronova was unwilling to watch the tragedy unfold.

But in the very next second, she suddenly noticed an astonishing flood of comments appearing on the video.

[Nuclear energy ahead!!!]

[Hold on to your phones and sit tight!!]

[Here he comes, here he comes! That man is here!]

Seeing how excited the comments were, Ronova couldn't help freezing in place.

Could things still take a turn?